About 15 years ago, I applied to a prestigious and globally recognized institution, to an opening for the Executive Director’s Assistant. And, I landed an interview.
It was curious: two women conducted the interview and they never made eye contact with one another. I noticed that and began to think “I don’t event want to work here as it is abundantly clear that these two are not happy.” What would be the point of leaving a job that I didn’t love but didn’t hate, for a job that was likely more like the fire than the frying pan?
It’s not always this clear, though, whether a workplace is unhealthy, dysfunctional, a total mess! How is the savvy interviewee to know? Here are a few tips:
1. Experts say it takes about three minutes to determine a person’s baseline of behaviour. During this time you can assess normal behaviours: rate of speech, physical activity that accompanies speech, the rate of “word whiskers,” those umms and so on that find their way into our speech patterns. Spend time chit-chatting about sports scores, weekend activities, or the latest great book you are reading so that you can observe and take (mental) note.
2. During the interview, ask questions about the workplace and watch the person’s response. If you asked “How does the corporation/division celebrate successes?” and the interviewer immediately begins to tap a pen or jiggle a leg or avoid eye contact or purse their lips, your “spidey senses” should be on high alert. Ask follow up questions to be sure of your evaluation.
Judging credibility or trying to figure out if a place is seething with issues is not easy. If my spidey senses were all a-tingle with doubt and suspicion, after the interview I would make a few phone calls to random people who work there to ask their opinion. I’ve done this before, and chose to NOT take a job based on what the employees told me. (And never regretted it. It’s amazing what people will tell you if you’re just plain honest and ask.)
Taking a job with an employer where people are unhappy, overworked, micro-managed or otherwise not productively engaged in delivering their service is unlikely to lead to your own success. Choose wisely and remember: you do have the right to choose! Working to your career’s success, Stephanie
Should you badmouth a previous employer?
Posted by Stephanie on June 1, 2012
It’s pretty much inevitable that by the time we’ve held a few part time and full time jobs, we’ve likely experienced a bad, rotten-to-the-core, unethical or abusive manager or employer. (How these types climb the career ladder is a mystery, but it happens. I hear it time and again from my clients, and of course I’ve worked under at least two of these myself.)
And that leads us to the question of how to deal with a question about the related employment, which was either cut short as we fled, or had no great accomplishments as we simply “did our job” without enthusiasm, or even led to a demotion because we dared speak up.
In general, it’s best to leave the negatives out of an interview, but there are situations in which it doesn’t hurt to point something out. It’s a fine line, a personal decision too, but here’s an idea or two to when that might work in your favor.
Interviewing is a bit “tricksy,” and takes strategy, a bit of public relations know-how, and the ability to read social cues quickly. Ah, there’s another topic for next time … how to read your interviewer’s social cues! Working to your career success, Stephanie
Posted in Career Management, Interview Tips | Tagged: how to address a bad employer in an interview, negative comments in the interview, replying to tough interview question | Leave a Comment »